ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a grammaticalization path approach to the variable context, whereby the contexts for the analysis of variation include not only all the forms fulfilling a given function, but also the range of functions along the grammaticalization path that can also be expressed. Thus it is that the majority of prediction uses have third-person subjects. The chapter explains the lingering meaning differences that are manifested in distributional differences within this narrower-purer future variable context of prediction. Discernible in are distribution tendencies for will and shall with respect to subject animacy and grammatical person, voice, clause type, and sentence type. The chapter attributes the apodosis effect at least in part to particular constructions. Following Myhill's discussion of shall in later stages of English, it have looked not so much for an obligation reading but a sense of arrangement based on social norms and the local situation.
